On Sunday, Robert Peng will rest.
After 22 years of 10-hour days, seven days a week, running Tung Fat Super Market on Johnson Street, he’s earned the break.
Peng and his wife, Sindy, are closing their Asian grocery story for good on Saturday. And while another Asian market is scheduled to move into the space, it won’t be the same.
Peng, 59, was running a small grocery in Vancouver’s Chinatown when he saw an opportunity to tap into the growing immigrant population in the suburbs. So he bought the Tung Fat from its previous owners and moved his family east.
Peng’s shop quickly became a focal point for immigrants from Hong Kong and Taiwan. They could buy the products and produce, like lotus root, Daikon radish and choy sum they were familiar with back home. They could tell the butchers, Peter Yang and Zhen Wu, exactly how they wanted their meat cut. And with all the posters of happenings and events of interest to the Asian community affixed to the walls and windows, they could also find out what was going on.
Many of those customers became friends, Peng said, after he exchanged contact information with one of them who’d dropped by to say goodbye.
When Peng took over the shop in a 1980s-era strip plaza, he was practically on the edge of town. Now he’s surrounded by high-rise condo buildings, a bustling High Street, while the nearby Coquitlam Centre shopping mall has practically doubled in size.
His customers have changed as well, with more immigrants from countries like Iran, along with Canadians broadening their culinary horizons, finding their way into his shop.
All that growth hasn’t exactly been a boon for an independent grocer like him, though, Peng said. His expenses, like rent and property tax, have increased dramatically and big supermarket chains have expanded their offerings to include all kinds of multicultural foods. He can’t compete with their price and selection anymore.
So, Peng said, he relies on smiles and good customer service to keep people coming through the door.
“We are like a family,” he said, adding the kids of some of his original customers are now shopping from him.
But beginning on Sunday, Peng will have to call and text them to stay in touch, rather than just exchange gossip over the produce aisle. After 10 years without a vacation, he said he’s looking forward to spending more time with his three children and one grandchild, as well as exercising more.
“I need a rest,” he said, smiling.
• June 28 - An earlier version of this story misspelled the first name of Robert Peng's wife.
